The Lethal Opposition

When your area of expertise is Behemoths, you can't help but learn a lot about the aetheric spectrum. In a way, studying Behemoths is studying aether, since they're made of the stuff. That stuff mixed with old-fashioned DNA, that is. And if there's one reliable truism of the aetheric spectrum, it's that every frequency, no matter how narrow or wide, has a polar opposite.

Most people think there are only six frequencies of aether, seven if you count neutral, even though that's better thought of as the centerpoint of the entire spectrum—one that only opposes itself. Every other slice of that pie has a binary nature, meaning every frequency on the spectrum has a polar opposite. Blaze opposes frost, terra stands against shock, of course. But there is also a frequency without a name, one that blends elements of blaze and terra into something with qualities of both. And opposing that frequency is a blend of shock and frost.

Slayers have long been familiar with the concept. They live it every hunt by donning armour charged with the same aetheric power as the Behemoth they plan to hunt, nullifying any advantage the creature might get from the opposition. As you'd expect they also tend to choose weapons for their hunts that are the aetheric opposite of the their quarry. Simple, isn't it?

Well, yes and no. As I mentioned before, there are shade of gray in any situation. Some Slayers simply have a preference for one form of aether or perhaps they favour some gear that confers a particular ability unrelated to the aetheric frequency. If you should follow the path of the Slayer instead of the much less glamourous—and far less deadly, for the most part—path of Behemoth studies, you may find every Behemoth slain is another friend, ally, or stranger who won't have to die. We need our Slayers.

But there's a different path. At the School for Behemoth Studies we are learning everything we can about these creatures in the hope that one day we discover a cure for the plague they represent. As a Slayer, you can save your city. At Behemoth Studies, you might just save the human race.


 * —Dr. Shaed Priyani